Autophagy in apicomplexan parasites

Abstract

Autophagy is a highly conserved eukaryotic degradation process that permits the recycling of intracellular components. The molecular machinery and the functions of autophagy have been classically characterized in mammalian cells and yeast, but have long remained unexplored in less-studied eukaryotes. Apicomplexan parasites are early-diverging eukaryotes responsible for a number of important human and veterinary diseases. In light of recent investigations into autophagy function in two of these pathogens, Plasmodium and Toxoplasma, it seems their autophagy-related machinery could be involved in both a canonical degradative function, and a non-canonical role related to the apicoplast, a metabolically important organelle of endosymbiotic origin.